Getting By

While the 1% rule, poor neighbourhoods have become the subject of public concern and media scorn, blamed for society's ills. This unique book redresses the balance. Lisa Mckenzie lived on the St Ann’s estate in Nottingham for more than 20 years. Her ‘insider’ status enables us to hear the stories of its residents, often wary of outsiders. St Ann's has been stigmatised as a place where gangs, guns, drugs, single mothers and those unwilling or unable to make something of their lives reside. Yet in this same community we find strong, resourceful, ambitious people who are 'getting by', often with humour and despite facing brutal austerity.

'LESSONS FROM LOCKDOWN: Lisa Mckenzie on class' on Transforming Society
'Lockdown diaries of the working class' on Transforming Society
'Top 10 books about council housing' in The Guardian

"This book challenges social scientists to think again about how working-class life on urban estates is portrayed, both academically and in the mainstream media." Social Policy & Administration

"[McKenzie] leads the reader to examine their own understanding of the working class by challenging the stigma attached to this identity and by representing this silenced community in modern Britain." BSA Network

"Lisa McKenzie did not try to paint an idyllic view of the council estate with its ethnic tensions across families that settled many generations ago. However her ethnography, which describes a mixed race community facing racism and endogamy from the middle classes, balances the narrow minded view that often associates lower classes with racism." [trans] lectures.revues.org

"The stories within this book lay bare what it means to be regarded as inferior and an outcast in your own society. This is a resolutely impressive book written with authenticity and passion." Mary O'Hara, journalist and author of Austerity Bites

"McKenzie has managed to transform several academic pieces of work into a accessible book full of humanity and honesty about St Ann's and some of the people who live there." The Spokesman

"A very fine ethnography of life in austerity Britain, charting the resilience and creativity of the community it describes, as well as their injuries and mistreatment by others." John Holmwood, Professor of Sociology, University of Nottingham

"As a child of St Ann’s and son of Jamaican immigrants, this is one of the most powerful celebrations of working-class and multi-cultural Britain I have ever read. I challenge you to read this book and not be ignited by a range of emotions such as sadness, anger, pleasure and joy. Read and enjoy. I did." Donald Mclean, Vice-Principal, Longley Park Sixth Form College

"A vivid, passionate account of class, gender and race in a stigmatised and poor working-class community, and a powerful defence of its people. Essential reading for 21st century Britain." Andrew Sayer, Professor of Social Theory and Political Economy, Lancaster University and author of Why we can't afford the rich

“Getting By is an essential antidote to media and governmental depictions of poverty in the UK today. McKenzie transports the reader into realities, rather than the stigmatised hype, of council estate life. This accessible and moving account of how people ‘get by’ in conditions of heightened poverty and inequality draws throughout on the powerful voices of working class people themselves.” Imogen Tyler, Lancaster University & author of Revolting Subjects: Social Abjection and Resistance in Neoliberal Britain

"This is one small example of a working class estate. But it tells the story of ordinary people as they see themselves, and in a corporate-dominated world that's worth something." Education for Tomorrow

"The book excels in bringing to life the realities of life lived in hard circumstances and the ways in which people respond to troubling experiences and harsh lie conditions." Journal of Social Policy

"Who am I to pass comment on this book? But that's the trick they play on you isn't it. We are all used, processed, slashed, but the under class, the worker, well they are thoroughly abused." Jason Williamson, Sleaford Mods

"A book that pulls no punches about its politics and commitment to challenging the anti-working class hatreds that are so prevalent in the UK today." Journal of Poverty and Social Justice

“A heart-wrenching, eminently readable, powerful book. This is class analysis at its most visceral and sensitive, uncovering incredibly resourceful survival strategies for staying human in conditions of incredible inhumanity." Bev Skeggs, Goldsmiths, University of London

"Getting By is a moving portrait of stigma and inequality which illuminates how the people of St Ann's navigate through the architecture, institutions and prestige systems of estate life, and shows, powerfully, why we must put value at the centre of class analysis." Dr Tracey Jensen, University of East London

Foreword by Danny Dorling;

Introduction; Being and belonging: the importance of narrative;

‘Being St Ann's’: an alternative value system;

‘Passing by’: family and community;

‘A little bit of sugar’: a discussion of taste;

‘The roof is on fire’: despair, fear and civil unrest;

‘On Road, don’t watch’;

Conclusion;

Afterword by Owen Jones